Divine Intervention
by RealityEnsued
Summary: What if the muggles are not as ignorant as the wizards think? What if the witch hunters of the old days are still around? And what if they decide that enough muggles have died? Harry, Hermione and Ron get caught in a 3 way battle between the Death Eaters, the Order and the muggles. A "what if" story that tries to stick to canon and push it a bit towards muggle reality.
1. Chapter 1 - The Snatchers

"Vol-"

"HARRY, NO!"

"-demort's after the Elder Wand!"

"The name's Taboo!" Ron bellowed, leaping to his feet as loud crack sounded outside the tent. Their protective spells had fallen. Snatchers had arrived, apparting around the tent and aiming their wands. They threatened them, got them out of the tent and were now dragging them around. Harry could see his friends getting dragged away from him, squinting to notice the shadows and outlines in the dark.

And then Harry heard a new sound. A swarm of high pitched whines, lasting only a second. And the Death Eaters fell to the ground, their heads horribly disfigured or completely missing. Before he could understand what happened, he felt a sharp sting in his leg and as the world turned black the last thing he saw was a small silver dart stuck in his thigh.

Hermione was the first to wake up. Her head spinning, she tried to get up but quickly fell back in the bed. The sharp pain she felt in her hand surprised her, and she looked with panic on the needle stuck in it. Then she realized where she was. This was a muggle hospital. She searched frantically for her wand, but all her possessions were gone. Even her clothes were changed and she was in a hospital gown. She looked at the bed next to her and saw Harry. He was also connected to a series of tubes and wires, but looked fine. On the bed next to him, Ron was similarly unconscious. She looked around the room a bit more, and relaxed slightly. Apart from the trio the room was empty and she wasn't in any immediate danger. She tried to remove the wires from her chest, but the sound of footsteps coming from outside made her stop and fall back down on the bed, closing her eyes and hoping for a chance. As soon as her eyes closed, the door to the room opened accompanied by a quiet buzzing sound. She heard footsteps approaching her bed. She could feel the person standing right above her, looking at the machine next to her. After a few tapping and clicking noises, she felt the presence of the person move away, towards Harry's bed. Feeling the rush of adrenaline, she decided to risk a quick glance. Opening her eyes for a fraction of a second, for the quickest glance, she managed to caught a glimpse of the nurse. She saw a woman, dressed in a simple black robe, with the straps of a white apron tied on her back and with a piece of white cloth covering her hair. Before Hermione could process the image she just saw, and wonder why a nun was caring for them, the door opened once more. She tried as much as possible to look like she was asleep. She could hear the woman turning and speaking to the newcomer: "Father.". The newcomer responded in kind: "Sister.". The newcomer was obviously a male, and because of her muggle upbringing, Hermione knew that he had to be a priest. She heard his footsteps approach her bed, and a slightly angry question:

"Sister, why are their hands not tied? And why are the mouths not gagged?".

Hermione was panicked now, and had to focus hard to prevent herself from trembling. Obviously they were prisoners and by the sound of it, they were nowhere near safe.

"Father Paul ordered that they are not to be bond.", answered the woman.

This seemed to have had an effect on the man. He left out a small growl and left the room in a hurry. As the woman returned to her duties, Hermione wondered what was going to happen to them. Her panic quieted down a bit, and she was now only frightened and thinking fast. But it at least looked like these people were not completely evil. Of course Father Paul, whoever he was, had to make an exception for them, so that didn't sound so too good. But at least they knew how to make exceptions, as opposed to the Death Eaters. As Hermione's mind was racing, the woman finished her work and walked out of the room. She opened her eyes again and started to look around the room. This time, instead of just trying to yank the wires off, she followed them first to see where they end. The machine was just like the ones she remembered from the TV shows she would watch during the summer breaks. She had the nasty feeling that removing the wires from her body would probably be noticed quickly. As she was looking around the room, looking for any way out or any clue as to where she was, here eyes fell on a small cross with a man on it, hanging on the wall next to the door. A crucifix was not a common thing in the wizarding world. As she was trying to make sense of this, the door suddenly opened and group of three men and a woman walked in. She tried to close her eyes and fall back to the sleeping position, but it was too late.

"Good evening, I am Father Paul Halloran. How are you feeling?" asked the old man, obviously the leader of the group.

"Please, you have to let us go.", whispered Hermione.

"You are safe here, for now."

"You do not understand, they will come for us, you are not safe, we are not safe, you have to let us go. Return our things to us!".

The priest was watching her silently for a moment.

"What is your name, young lady?".

"Katie Bell", Hermione hoped that the muggles didn't know much about the wizarding world. One of the men in the group showed something to the father on a small black device, who looked at it for a moment before returning it.

"Well Miss Bell, it would seem that we don't know much about you. Tell me, Miss Bell, why would we return your wands to you? Oh yes, we know that you are a witch. We are not going to give you your wand just so you can attack us, no.", his face relaxed a bit, "But we mean you no harm, not yet. For now, we would just like to talk. So tell me, how are you feeling?".

"My left hand hurts. Why did you put the needle in? What are you doing to me?"

"Relax Miss Bell, it is just some normal I.V. to keep you hydrated and help you wear off the effect of the tranquilizer."

"YOU TRANQUILIZED ME!?", Hermione remembered the sharp pain in her back before the world went black. That must have been where the dart hit.

"Please, would you have come peacefully otherwise? We are not stupid, we know you would have teleported the second we took out the Death Eaters."

"You...took out... the Death Eaters? But... you are muggles! How do you know that name? How could you have taken down a group of Snatchers, when a single wizard would have easily defended against a whole group of muggles!"

"Miss Bell, we might be muggles, but that is not all that we are. My full name is Father Paul Halloran, of the Catholic Order of 12th Apostol. We are known by many names around the world: the slayers, the witch hunters, the willing traitors. A long time ago, we were called the Inquisitors."

"Catholic... Inquisition...witch hunters...no...", her voice trailed to whisper, "please no, don't kill me."

"As I said, that was a long time ago. Our numbers are much smaller these days, especially in this heretical country. We have, reformed, some of our more, aggressive practices. Now please, tell me more about your group. What are the two young wizards called?"

"Dennis Creevey and Ernie Macmillan", at this point Hermione really hoped they were not familiar with the wizarding world, because if they are, she just lied to the organization known for burning her kind.

The small black device was consulted again.

"Ah... Miss... Bell, was it?", Oh no, thought Hermione, "It would seem that your friend, Mister Creevey, is someone we know about. His father is a milkman, you see. He is also supposed to be a few years younger than the gentleman on the bed next to you. Lying, Miss... Bell... is a sin. I'll let you think about that for a while, when you would like a confession, please press the button on the bed."

The father turned, and walked away. Hermione noticed that the two other men were keeping an eye on her up until the point the door closed between them.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Shot

Harry was the next to wake up. He jumped up from his bed so violently that the tube leading to his hand was ripped out. He let out a small curse when the pain darted from his hand. He started looking around for his wand and then noticed Ron in the bed next to him, sleeping.

"Oh thank god, you woke up Harry.", the voice behind him turning him into a spin. Hermione was lying on the bed next to his, looking worried, frightened and teary eyed.

"Hermione, are you alright? where are we? What's going on? What is this place?"

"Oh Harry, they got us."

"Who? The Death Eaters?", somehow he didn't imagine the Death Eaters in muggle hospitals.

"No Harry... The Inquisition. I know, I know it sounds strange. But there were at least three priests here a few minutes ago. They told me they were the Catholic Order of 12th Apostol, which hunters. The Inquisition! Harry, they used to BURN witches!"

Harry had to sit down on his bed. The Inquisition? But that was hundreds of years ago. And besides, they never actually caught any wizards. Real wizards were too powerful for muggles.

"But Hermione, they are muggles. They can't hurt us! We just have to get our things and leave this place, they can't follow us or stop us."

"Harry, they know. They know that we are wizards, that's why they took our wands. And I heard one of them talking, he was surprised we were not tied up and gagged. Harry, these muggles have dealt with wizards before. They killed the Snatchers that caught us!"

Harry had to think about that for a moment. Muggles fighting wizards. The thought seemed strange to him. In the past seven years, in the wizarding world, muggles were always treated... like they were part of the scenery. They were human and somewhat related, but they didn't really play a part in this world. The worst wizard was still much more powerful than any muggle.

As he was thinking, a loud grunt came from Ron's bed. He was starting to wake up.

As he did so, the door opened and more than a dozen men, all dressed in habits, stormed the room. They lined against the wall pointing deadly looking weapons at the three. Behind them walked three women, nuns. Without a word, they motioned Harry to lie back on his bed. As he opened his mouth to demand an explanation, the men immediately pointed their guns at him and one of the women hissed, " Be silent! Heretic! Speak and you all die. Move fast and you all die.". She then motioned again towards the bed. Harry stood there for a moment, frozen. He had no wand. He couldn't hex them, he couldn't apparate, nor could he fight them. Slowly he backed to the bed and sat down. The women walked to him, checking the pads which connected him to the hospital monitors. The woman that spoke, probably the most senior of the three, reattached the tube to his hand. He winced a little.

The women left the room, slowly followed by some of the guards. Six guards remained behind, still pointing their weapons. From the look on their faces, Harry knew that speaking would be a deadly mistake. As he was looking at them he heard a quiet call for Hermione from Ron's bed. He slowly turned to Ron, keeping his eye at the guard. The guard slowly nodded his head.

"Ron, it's important that you do not speak. Trust me, it's ok mate. Just don't speak!"

Slowly, Ron opened his eyes and got upright. He was starting at the guards in obvious confusion. They were dressed all in black, but in clothes he never saw before. They looked muggle, but more dangerous then he ever saw before. And they didn't have wands, but they were pointing black metallic boxes with sticks at them. This was not good.

After a few minutes, the doors opened and the three men, whom Hermione recognized as Father Paul and his two guards, entered the room.

"Well Miss Bell, would you like to confess your sin?"

Harry and Ron were looking at Hermione in complete confusion. What was this man talking about?

"Please, just let us go.", pleaded Hermione.

"Ah, no confession then. Well, this lie is still on your soul Miss Granger. Oh yes, we know who you are, we have listened to the conversation you had with your friend.", turning to Harry, he said: "Mister Potter. Good evening Mister Potter. And of course this is Mister Weasley. My name, is Father Paul Halloran."

"You listened to us? Ah... cameras, of course.", Hermione realized that being in the muggle world was going to require a change in thinking.

"Very good Miss Granger, your muggle experience is giving you an advantage. Most wizards never realize how we monitor them. Look at the confused face of your friend Weasley here if you wish to know more."

"Oy now, who the hell are you!", Ron shouted before the other two could stop him. As soon as his first shout left his mouth, the guard closest to him fired. The bullet pierced Ron's shoulder and he fell down to his bed. Father Paul raised his hand and everyone in the room froze. The guards were still aiming at Ron, and Harry and Hermione were too shocked to even move. In a slightly annoyed voice, Father Paul called for the nurse to come in quick. A group of six nurses ran into the room, swarming around Ron. They quickly rolled him out of the room. Harry was trembling with anger, and Hermione was crying.

"Please realize, your friend did a very stupid thing. We have been fighting wizards for 700 years now. Wizards shouting at us usually means a curse flying our way. So please, do not make the same mistake your friend did. Don't worry about him, our doctors are trained to heal gunshot wounds. He will be in surgery in minutes."

A sharp whisper came from Hermione: "Please, let me heal him."

"Give you your wand, Miss Granger? It seems that you were not listening to me."

"No, no wands. Just a potion, in my handbag."

"A potion? We have seen potions that turn light into dark, that explode holes in explosive proof walls and a potion that makes the person invisible. He will be fine with the surgery, he will recover in about three months. We do not aim to kill prisoners, I'm sure the bullet did minimal damage."

"Three... months. Please, we do not have that much time. Please just let me heal him. The potion can heal him in a few seconds."

"You see Miss Granger, there is a reason lying is a sin. How can I trust you, when you didn't even trust me with your name?", the old priest was watching her carefully, "Can both of you walk?"

Harry and Hermione, surprised by the sudden question, both nodded in agreement.

"Very well, sister, please remove the monitors and I.V.-s. Let's see if they can help their friend."

As the women removed the pads from their chest and needles from their hands, Harry and Hermione were slightly confused. They were very scared of the people who just shot Ron without warning or real provocation. And yet when compared to some of their usual opponents, they seemed almost reasonable. Perhaps too reasonable, perhaps calculated was a better word. At least the old man has said they will be allowed to help Ron.

When they were finally free, Harry and Hermione carefully stood up from their beds, looking nervously at the guards and the old man.

"You will not be harmed if you follow simple rules: no sudden actions, no shouting, no tricks. Try to trick us, and you die. Do exactly as we tell you, or you die. We are not playing games."

The old priest turned to the door. The guards moved like one, Hermione and Harry were both flanked by two guards, aiming at them from point-blank range. They were followed by guards, and there were guards moving in front of them, shielding the old priest. As they moved through the structure, they noticed that they were not in a normal hospital. The building was unlike anything they had seen before. It was incredibly sterile, with blank walls and doors with no markings on them. They turned a few corners and very soon Hermione was lost. There was nothing that would give you a sense of direction. Even the regularly spaced, very simple windows were all looking out into the same series of green trees.

After a short walk, they entered a room and she could see Ron lying on the table, with a team of nurses and doctors dressed in scrubs preparing to operate the wound on his shoulder. Between her and Ron was a glass wall with glass doors. Next to the door was a small metal table, and on top of it her handbag. It seems that these people at least do not lie, they really are going to let her heal Ron.

"Well Miss Granger, here we are. What does the potion look like?", the priest asked while picking up the handbag.

"It's a small bottle of brown liquid, but you should know that the bag is charmed. The insides are much bigger than the outside."

"I see. Very well, you will open it. But you will do so in the center of the room and leave it opened. Take the potion very slowly out of the handbag and step away. Trying to play a trick would be, inadvisable. Even if you survive, your friends will die."

"No tricks, I promise."

The priest nodded in agreement as Hermione slowly took the handbag from the table and started to look for Essence of Dittany. After a brief rummage she found the brown vial and slowly placed it next to her bag.

"Take the bag away, put it in quarantine storage but don't close it.", the father motioned towards two guards, "What should be done next, Miss Granger?"

"This is a very strong healing potion. A few drops directly to the wound should heal it. I could tell you more if I could see the wound."

The doors were opened and Hermione was let in, under heavy guard. She walked to Ron and slowly examined his shoulder. The wound was deep, going straight through the shoulder, but luckily no bones were hit. Slowly, making sure that every move was approved by the old priest, she poured a few drops of the brown potion in the wound. Instantly, the wound started to heal, and the scar forming over it looked a few days old. The doctors watching turned around to the priest and nodded in approval. They walked out of the door leaving the nurses to look after Ron.

In a few minutes, they were back in their room, sitting on their beds. The old priest was looking at them with great interest. Quietly, he motioned a large portion of the guards out of the room.

"Most wizards would have tried to trick us. You did something strange back there, you showed reason. I can understand why your own government is trying to track the three of you down."

Harry's eyes widened. "You know about the Ministry? You know that there is a price for us?"

"Of course we know. The wizarding world is really very bad at keeping secrets. The only reason it is a secret at all is because we also try to keep it such. For the past hundred years the advancements in the muggle world make the wizarding world seem much less powerful than before Mister Potter. But you know this, you were raised by muggles."

"You know about me?"

"You are a famous person in the wizarding world. We know all about your current status as the 'undesirable number one' of the Wizarding Britain. We also know that there were recent changes in the direction your Ministry is heading. Very disturbing changes that make it dangerous to harbour fugitives."

"If you know all this, why did you help us?", Harry asked.

"We helped you because we know all of this."

Hermione couldn't follow this. "How does that make sense? If you know who we are, you know that taking us will only draw attention to you.", as the expression on the priests face had a slight question on it, she decided to explain, "One of the Snatchers was Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf. He could have survived, and by this time he will have reported back to his master. Why didn't you just let us get taken? In fact, how did you know we were there?"

"As for the unwanted attention, we shall see. As for the other questions. God has a plan for us all, His will was for us to find you there, and we did."

As Harry was preparing to ask some more questions, the old wizard quickly raised his hand.

"Please, this was a long day. We have talked much, and there is still much left to discuss. If I ask you to keep calm and stay here for a few hours, we can share a meal afterwards where you can tell me more of your story. Please, do not attempt anything foolish. You already know we have cameras, we will most likely stop you, and the force will be deadly. Have a good day, and rest."


	3. Chapter 3 - The Father

Father Paul was sitting in his study, doing the daily paperwork. The study was extremely spartan room, a simple wooden desk, two hard metal chairs in front of it, exactly the same hard metal chair behind it and a small wooden kneeler under a metal crucifix. This was the exact same inventory every single other person in the 12th Order had. The only personal possession the father had in his room was a small white rosary, currently resting on his desk. Looking at the office, your first thought would be poverty.

Hidden away from the sight however, were two fighting knives magneted under his desk, right next to a Mini UZI. When you fight an enemy you cannot see, hear or hit, you can never be ready enough.

And there was of course the camera and the security system. One of the few things that might give them a chance if the wizards really do attack the base. The automatic defense system didn't have eyes the wizards could trick, or bodies they could attack, not to mention the fact that wizards would probably never even think that machines might be gunning them down automatically with no humans involved.

As he was going through the daily report of their spy network, the door opened. Not too strongly, but strong enough to send a message without actually being rude. Father Sarnowski walked in, without waiting for an invitation, but at the last moment decided that sitting down uninvited would be pushing it too far. Instead, he chose to stand right behind the chair and show the old man at least some amount of respect.

"Laudetur Iesus Christus, Father Paul"

Full greeting, thought Father Paul, this is going to be interesting.

"In saecula! Amen. What bothers you brother? Please, sit down."

"Why did you order the prisoners to be left untied? This is against the practices of our Order. The heretics must be shown no mercy."

"They are important, Piotr. You know who they are. They have information, information about the upcoming battles. Information that is not commonly known, not even in their world. We need them to share with us."

"But they are wizards and a witch! They should be questioned and then sent back with fire to their black master in Hell!"

Father Paul was wondering why the bishop had sent this man to be his promotor fidei. Sarnowski was a devout priest, and you could see his strict Polish catholic upbringing, but he had a mind that only knew black and white. Hopefully, he will learn in time that good leaders need to be more flexible than that.

"Piotr, have you forgotten the History of The Order classes from the seminary? Most of the unfortunate burning was done by the heretical Protestants, not us. We have not burned a witch in 500 years."

"Still, you are endangering the Order by letting them be untied and ungaged. And what were you thinking, going in there without the full guard to talk to that witch? And you even told them that we were watching them through cameras!"

"I was not in any danger Piotr. We confiscated their wands, and you know that the security system alone is enough to stop them. Going with the full guard when they were all awake only resulted in us wounding Mister Weasley."

"What about the others? You know that they will be looking for them. The werewolf managed to survive the first strike. IR scans confirmed it. Eventually they will figure out what happened. Are they worth it?"

"I believe they are. The girl is exceptionally smart, the scarred one is strong and the redhead is fiercely loyal. Torture would not break any one of them. With time, we can get them to volunteer information."

"The practices of the Order must be followed! I am sorry, I shall have to inform His Excellency of this!"

"_Ah, so that is what this is about_", though Father Paul, "_Planning to take my place._"

"It is your right and duty Piotr. Inform His Excellency of the situation. Now please leave me, I must go through my midday prayer."

As Sarnowski left, Father Paul took his rosary and knelt in prayer. He found prayer to be his time for meditation, and this time he focused on the events of the morning. As he mouthed the words, he was thinking about the arguments Sarnowski put through. Was he endangering the Order by leaving them alive? He was certainly going against the established practice of dealing with wizards. But these three were different, the girl showed as much. And Sarnowski was not there 53 years ago when the last great war was fought. A war in the wizarding world spills over into the normal world every time. Allies in the wizard resistance might be a much needed asset to the Order.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Present

Harry and Hermione were in a difficult position. They knew they were being watched so discussing their escape plan took effort. They did not have their wands, or any of their possessions. Except for one. Harry didn't know how to tell it to Hermione, but his mokeskin pouch was still around his neck. The snitch, Marauders map and his mother's letter would not be of much use for escape, but he did have his broken wand in there. And the mirror shard. He had to find a way to ask Hermione if it was possible to apparate with a broken wand.

"Hermione, do you think we will ever get our wands back? You know how I feel about my wand. I hope they do not break them."

"_His broken wand! He has the mokeskin pouch still on him! Of course! But why would he talk about it now. Unless he plans to try to use it. But he can't, it won't work. Spells will backfire and if we try to apparte we might splinch._", Hermione wished she studied wandlore more. She packed books, of course, but they were in her handbag.

"No Harry, I don't think they will break them. They might still need us to do magic and a broken wand is very dangerous to use. I wonder how the food will taste. I am used to elf made food by now."

"_Elf made food? The last elf made food was... Kreacher? Can I summon him? I don't need a wand for that. But what can the old elf do. As soon as I do it, we will have only a few seconds. And we don't have Ron here..._"

"I think we will just have to wait and see."

"Harry, Vo...he-who-must-not-be-named will find us, soon. They did not kill Greyback, werewolf would not be killed by a muggle bullet. Our only hope is Vol...his... prejudice will blind him for a while. But eventually he will figure it out, he will find us."

"I know Hermione, but we cannot do anything."

"We need to tell them. Tell the muggles everything about Riddle. If they know who is coming, they will have to let us go. They won the fight against the snatchers but they cannot hope to defend against him."

"I don't know Hermione. This was never part of any plan. I don't think Dumbledore ever imagined that we would be faced with this. He wanted us to keep hiding from the Order of Phoenix. If we did not trust them, how can we trust the muggles?"

"We can't. But I don't think they will help us unless we tell them exactly how the wizarding world works these days."

"They seem to know a lot of it already. They knew how we are. They know we are wanted for questioning. How do you think they know all this Hermione? We should first figure that out, before we decide if we can trust them."

They fell in silence as they considered this. How did they know so many things about the wizarding world? Some muggles did know about the wizarding world, parents of muggleborns and people who married into wizarding families. But even Hermione's parents only had a general idea of it, pieced together from the brief visits to Diagon Alley and her stories. Before she wiped even that from their minds. The pain of that still haunted her.

How could an organization such as this have such recent information? The ministry fell only a few months ago. And if anything, Hermione would have expected that muggles would know less now that Death Eaters were running the world.

The room had no clocks and they lost track of time, it seemed to them that only minutes passed before they were again interrupted. A woman accompanied by half a dozen guards brought them clothes. Not their clothes, the Inquisition was obviously still afraid of that, but plain muggle clothes. They were comfortable though, if a bit conservative. Hermione noticed that in the best tradition, women were apparently expected to wear skirts and not pants. Colours were also for someone else, Inquisition opting for the white and black.

After they dressed, they were escorted through the empty corridors to the dining hall. The hall was quite different from what they expected. It was a communal hall. And it was far from comfortable. It was just a few rows of plain wooden tables with hard wooden benches. Currently empty, the hall could fit about fifty people in total.

They were motioned to sit at the table. Their guards avoided speaking to them as much as possible and after the incident with Ron, Harry and Hermione knew not to try and smalltalk. After a few minutes, father Paul arrived. He was accompanied by his standard guards and a younger priest. Hermione recognized him as the man who visited them when she was pretending to be asleep. Now that she could get a good look at him, she disliked him even more. There was something in the way he walked, a slight swaying motion, that reminded her of a snake. And his face. Even though his expression was blank, his eyes betrayed him. There was evil in those eyes. Not the open, selfish evil of Voldemort, but equally dangerous. The men sat down on the opposite side of the table. No words were spoken.

After a few moments of tense silence, a side door opened and four trays were brought in. The food was plain and simple, but there was enough of it and Harry and Hermione were starving. They reached for their spoons to start on the soup but a loud cough stopped them. Both men had their hands clasped together and heads slightly bowed. After motioning the Sign of the Cross, they both started in a creepy unison:

"Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen."

The tense silence continued through the entire meal. The food was nourishing and for the first time since they got in this place, Harry and Hermione felt their muscles relaxing. Whatever was going to happen to them, for the next hour they were probably safe.

After they finished their meals, the priests again made a short prayer, this time in silence.

"Well Mister Potter, Miss Granger, here we are. I'm sure you have many questions for me, as I have for you. I hope we can discuss this in a civilized fashion, no lies this time. Although I do understand why you lied to us before. Shall we start? I know the question burning in your mind, ask it."

"Is Ron OK?"

"Mister Weasley is doing well. The potion you used on him has sped up his recovery significantly. The doctors think he will be able to join you tomorrow. We are keeping him sedated for the time being, we wouldn't want him to do something stupid, now that he is alone. My turn. Tell me Mister Potter, why do you think we are in danger?"

"You know already. You watched us on cameras. Hermione told you. One of the Snatchers was a werewolf. If your guns work the way I think they work, he will be able to heal from that wound. Even if you had silver bullets, he would have survived. The silver thing is just a legend, but you probably already know that."

"Yes, we know. We know how to kill werewolves though. Unfortunately, we did not know one was in the party."

"Just how much do you know? You seem to know a lot about Hermione, Ron and me. How do you know so much about the wizarding world? I thought the Ministry takes care of all muggles. I thought wizards erased all memories of themselves 300 years ago."

"They did Mister Potter, they did. Of course, not all memory. Important people were told. Today, your Prime Minister is told about the Ministry on his first day. Back in the day, it was kings and queens. Royalty, powerful people. They are told, because that is the way things were before. A long time ago, wizards were part of the society. Of course, back then, there were a few thousand wizards in Britain and few million muggles. Still a lot more muggles than wizards, but you could have a wizard in every larger village. The better wizards, the more powerful ones, served in bigger cities. The most powerful ones worked in courts. Remember the legend of Merlin. He is the most famous, but he is not the only wizard to be part of the aristocracy. Almost all "old wizarding families", as you might know them, were. The Blacks, Crouches, Lestrange, Longbottom, Malfoy. Yes Mister Potter, I know you recognize those names. Hundreds of years ago, all those families were royalty in the muggle world. They were also the ones who fought the secrecy act the most, 300 years ago. You see, it was a very good life for them. Being a wizard, especially a powerful one, was a good life. Power and wealth were practically given to them, they only had to ask. So they made sure that provisions were left in the act that allowed them to use muggles as they were used to. This is how knowledge of wizards survived in the muggle world. But as the centuries passed, a strange thing happened. The number of muggles rose. Tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions. But the number of wizards did not. Seven hundred years ago, there were a few thousand wizards in Britain. Today, we estimate there are around ten thousands wizards. For some reason, He only knows why, the number of wizards seems to be limited. And so the memory diluted. Now reduced to a legend and fantasy stories for children. But some remember the truth. The knowledge has been passed on, from generation to generation, that the wizards are out there. And that not all of them are good."

"But how do you know new things. You know that the Ministry is after me, and they have only been doing that for a year now. How can you know recent events?"

"Ah, well. While wizards don't take much notice of such things as science and technology, we muggles are still progressing. We have always known wizards exist, but for the past few decades our technology has enabled us to keep a pretty close eye on your world mister Potter."

"But wait a moment.", Hermione interrupted, "Technology doesn't work next to magic. Electric devices don't work in strong magic fields. You couldn't be using technology to monitor the Ministry or Hogwarts."

"But we can monitor everywhere else. You see miss Granger, we might not be able to monitor places with high magic density, but we can monitor all other places in Britain. When you eliminate all normal places, whatever is left is magical. And technology is not the only way to get information. We specialized in extracting information in the past 500 years."

"You tortured wizards to get information on us?"

"Volunteers mister Potter, volunteers. Some of the muggle born wizards are borne into catholic families. Few, very few, maintain their faith even when they accept their invitation to Hogwarts. It is an act of faith and bravery to do so. They risk their souls to help protect those who cannot protect themselves. We pray for them daily. My turn again. I know that you are on a mission. And I heard you say that Dumbledore asked you to keep this mission secret from your friends. I'm afraid I'll have to know what this mission is."

Harry knew that this questions was going to come up. There were two ways he could respond. He will either have to tell them they are looking for the Horcrux or the Hallows. The Horcrux was a secret, even in the wizarding world. If he tells them about it, he might be releasing a very dangerous knowledge into the world. On the other hand, they will have no way to check his story. The Hallows are a popular bedtime story in the wizarding world. It's possible that they know about them. In which case they might wonder just what it is that we plan to do with them. And he had to admit, he didn't have an actual plan. Getting the Hallows would supposedly bring him mastery over Death, but unless that means he can wish Voldemort away, he still needs a plan to bring him and his army down. It was time to make a choice.

"We are looking for three powerful artefacts known as the Deathly Hallows. A magical Elder wand, magical cloak and a stone. Legend claims that they were created by Death himself and handed to three brothers: Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus Peverell. The Elder wand is said to be the most powerful wand in existence and whoever wields it cannot be defeated in a duel. The magical cloak grants the wearer complete invisibility, even from Death itself. The stone is said to grant the ability to bring back souls of the dead."

"Blasphemy!", shouted Sarnowski, "This has gone far enough! You are going to sit here and listen to this boy talk about necromancy? These words are an abomination! No man can bring back that which God Almighty has taken to his side. We should deal with them as we have always dealt with such."

"Calm down Piotr.", father Paul was reading something one of his sides passed on, "It would seem that we have records of this legend, dating back... all the way to 1300. It's just a legend, Piotr. Let the boy speak, even on trial he would have a chance to present his case. Continue Harry, tell us why you think these artefacts exist, and why are you trying to find them."

"Well, we think they exist because we think we saw one. And we are trying to find them because Vol... Riddle is trying to find them too."

"You think you have seen one? Which one?"

"I think that professor Dumbledore had at one point in his possession the cloak. And we know that the dark lord is trying to find the wand. He believes it will make him unstoppable.", Harry realized it would be a good idea to mention exactly why, "You see, he is a very powerful wizard even without the Elder wand. But for some reason, when he tried to kill me as a child he formed a connection between us. Now normal wands do not work normally when we fight. They tend to become entwined, and refuse to duel. I don't even understand this completely myself. So I believe he is searching for the Elder wand to be able to personally kill me."


	5. Chapter 5 - The Link

There was a short awkward silence in the room.

"Did the dark lord share his quest with anyone?", asked father Paul.

"We don't think so. We can't be sure in that. But we are sure that he is personally looking for the wand. He would avoid telling his minions about something so powerful. Perhaps Bellatrix Lestrange, his most trusted follower. She might know, at least parts of it."

"So...", started Sarnowski, "You are trying to tell us, that one of the most powerful wizards in existence. A self-proclaimed dark lord, that has masterminded a takeover of the wizarding Britain, sent you into hiding and plans to eradicate humanity... is wasting his time trying to find a legendary wand, just so he can personally kill a boy who has just finished school? And instead of using his minions to find the wand, he is doing it alone. The only thing I don't understand is why do you expect us to believe this story."

"Because it's the truth.", interrupted Hermione calmly. "Whether you believe us or not does not change the facts. And you can make the story sound however you like. He is doing it, and he is not stupid. Even if there is no wand, it still makes sense for him to stay in the shadows, even travel a bit outside the country. After all, he has already won over the wizarding Britain through deceit."

"There is another clue.", Harry added, "Some time ago, he kidnapped and imprisoned a wandmaker. The most famous wandmaker in Britain, Olivander. We know he tortured him to get information about the wand. And from what we know, Olivander did give him enough to point him to the next person in the quest, a Bulgarian wandmaker called Gregorovitch."

"You seem to know a lot about his movements."

"I have spent most of last year learning about Riddle. That is his given name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. He changed it, in Hogwarts when he decided to become the next dark lord. His current name I cannot say. A Taboo spell has been placed on it. Saying his name alerts the Ministry to your location and seems to dispel protective spells. That is how the Snatchers found us, before you killed them. I learned about his childhood, his school years, early life and his first rise to power. I understand him better than even he might. He lost his humanity in his lust for power, perhaps even some of his memories."

"This does not explain how you know details of his current actions. How do you know exactly what the wandmaker told him?"

"It goes back to that bond he formed when failing to kill me seventeen years ago. When he is emotional, usually angry or murderous, I can see glimpses of his mind. That's how I saw him talking to Olivander, because he was happy torturing him."

"You see in his mind? Am I to assume that he can also see in yours?"

Hermione understood at once. Harry was too into his story, he should never have said that. He was now an obvious risk for the Inquisition. And there was one very simple and deadly way they can stop Voldemort from looking into Harry's mind. They are going to shoot them right here and right now. At this point she was panicking. They have to say something fast, really fast.

"There is no mind reading. The practice of entering another person's mind is called Legilimency. And it's not mind reading. It's more like walking through a house. Some rooms might be full of memories long gone, some might be fleeting present thoughts. Correctly interpreting what you see is the most difficult part of Legilimency. And the mind can resist. The opposite skill is called Occulmency.", Hermione hoped that this would be enough to stop them from getting rid of them this moment.

"I trained in Occulmency during my entire sixth year.", Harry decided not to mention he was really lousy at it.

"Obviously, you understand what I have to do now. Guards! Take him away. Put a blindfold on him at once, and put him in a holding cell next to mister Weasley. He is to be blindfolded at all times.", Paul turned to Harry, "Go peacefully mister Potter, or I will make sure we don't have to worry about your mind being ever read."

"What about the girl Paul?", asked Sarnowski.

"She stays. There are many more questions that need answers."

The guards quickly circled Harry. Some of them remained at a distance, weapons ready. Hermione noticed that while most were pointing at Harry, she was still covered from 3 different angles. Obviously, it was better to let this happen. At least for now it was just imprisonment. The guards quickly blindfolded Harry.

"Piotr, you should go with them."

There was an obviously flash of anger over the younger priests face. But he silently stood up and led the group out of the hall.

Hermione and the old priest were now almost alone. Only the father's young aide and a single guard were left in the room. She wondered if she could use this opportunity and try to escape somehow. But they were still three men, probably trained in hand to hand combat and she was a witch without a wand. She took this brief pause to look at the old priest more closely. He was older, at least 60 years old, maybe even more. But he was incredibly tough for his age. You could see scars on his face, like he was bitten, clawed and cut on multiple occasions. But his eyes were not evil. They were serious, like only eyes that have seen too much can be, but they were calm. You could look at them and feel a certain tranquility. "Here is a person who has seen the dark of this world.", they seemed to say, "But there is still hope in them.". If he wasn't responsible for imprisoning her friend and shooting Ron, she might even like him. But he was.

"Miss Granger, what am I going to do with you?"

"You could let us go. I could cast a memory charm on them. Ask Harry to blank my mind, and just go. We would not be any danger to you then."

"We protect people from such things. You could convert... Leave behind your life as a heretic and become a muggle."

"You know I wouldn't. And even if I would, Harry couldn't. You see, there is a prophecy that says that either Harry kills Riddle, or Riddle kills Harry."

"There have been many false prophecies in the history."

"It doesn't matter if the prophecy is true or false. The only thing that matters is the choice Harry makes. And he will never abandon his friends. Even if he believes the prophecy to be false, he will still face him. Even if it means sacrificing himself."

"What happens if you lose?"

"The wizarding world falls. And then the real war starts. The previous Dark Lord was Gellert Grindelwald. From what I have read in the history books, that wizarding war fueled the Second World War. And, for a Dark Lord, Grindelwald didn't even hate muggles. He wanted to break the secrecy and enslave them, yes. But Riddle... Riddle wants to KILL every muggle, half-blood or blood traitor in the world."

"So you see why I cannot let you go. You are in no position to fight this war. You almost got captured when we collected you."

"That was a mistake! We have been hiding for months now. We just didn't know about the Taboo."

"What is Taboo, anyway? How does it work?"

"I don't know. If you would give me my books, I could try to research it. But from experience, I think it's a tracking spell and a disillusion charm. When you say the dark lords name, somehow the death eaters know where you are and our defensive spells went down."

"What if I say it? Does it work on non-magical people?"

"I don't know. Give me my books, and I will find out."

"I think I have a better idea."


	6. Chapter 6 - The Plan

A/N: I'm sorry for the rather sporadic schedule. I am trying to stick to reality and canon with this "what if" story so I spend a lot of time researching finer details of magic, Catholicism and 1990-2000 military warfare. It takes more time than expected. Also, note that while J.K. did say that muggle with a gun beats a wizard every time, a secret society trying to hide from other muggles can't realistically bomb a part of Britain without anyone noticing.

"You agreed to do WHAT?"

She knew Ron was not going to like this. She hated putting him through this. He was still recovering from his wound. He will be completely healed in a few days. Unfortunately, that will be a few days too late to help her.

"I agreed to help the Inquisition capture a few Snatchers or Death Eaters. Then they can question them and see if Riddle learned about this place from Harry's mind."

"But that's brilliant Hermione! When you get your wand, stun the lot and get us out of here!"

"I don't think I'm getting my wand back. They plan to use me as bait."

"Hermione! I'm not letting you do this! You can't face a gang of Death Eaters alone with no wand!"

"Letting me do this? Letting me? LETTING? I love that you came back to us but you don't know what Harry and I have been through! Look Ron, you are too weak to fight, and they are afraid that Vol...Riddle will read Harry's mind at any moment. They are keeping him knocked out with drugs at the moment. I'm the only one that can do this, and it needs to be done fast. Before they decide to kill him.", Hermione calmed down a bit, "Besides, I'm not going to be alone. This is an ambush after all. Two squads, whatever that means, are going with me. One squad killed a whole gang of Snatchers when they captured us, and they assure me that was not even planned."

"I still don't like it. Can I at least know the plan? I can be useful."

"It's a simple plan, really. We will go out into the woods, far away from this place. I will then trigger the Taboo and wait for the response. Once they gather around me, the Inquisition soldiers will shoot them with tranquilizer darts and take them to an 'interrogation center'. I offered veritaserum, but they just said they 'have experience'."

"That's some plan that is. What if something goes wrong. How are you supposed to defend yourself? What if they miss? What if someone casts a shield spell or apparates?"

"I don't know Ron. I think they are not too concerned with my safety. After all, if they just get rid of us, they solved their problem. At least that is what some of them think."

"Hermione, when is this happening?"

"Now, Ron.", his eyes widen in shock, "I just came to say goodbye. I hope I'll see you soon. And if I don't...", she couldn't do this any more. She squeezed his hand, get up and left. He was still shocked for a moment, then he started shouting: "Come back! This is crazy! Don't do this! Hermione!".

But she was already gone. She was walking down the corridor with her guards. They were going towards the 'gear room'. She was still heavily guarded, but the guards seemed to maintain their distance, and nobody was pointing a gun at her. After a brief walk through the base, they arrived in the gear room. A much younger priest was waiting for her there. He was also the first one not wearing the traditional habit. Instead, he was wearing something she used to see in movies. He was dressed head to toe in dark brown and green military camouflage.

"Miss Granger. I'm Deacon Radebe. I'll be leading the ambush mission. Time for you to gear up. Here.", he waved his hand towards the table in the center of the room, "This is for you."

On the table were her old clothes, nice and tidy. And a locked plastic box with 3 wands.

"Just tell me which wand is yours. You'll get it once we arrive on the site."

She did not expect this. She pointed out her vine wand. The young priest nodded and took the box.

"Please change your clothes. I'll be back in 5 minutes."

She changed into her old clothes. It felt good. It made her feel a bit more herself. Hopefully she gets to keep it after this. She realized that she was so happy about getting her clothes back she completely forgot about the wand. She was sure they would just stick her in the center of the Snatcher circle and hope she survives. If they really give her the wand, she can... What can she do with it? They still have Harry and Ron locked under guard. She will need to act fast, apparate in the base as fast as possible and free Harry and Ron. And get their possessions, especially the Sword of Gryffindor. She had to admire how efficient the Inquisition was. Even if they gave her the wand now, she would have trouble using it against them.

The young Deacon arrived after 5 minutes, as promised. He took her on a much longer walk this time. At some point, they reached a stairway. She was used to the grand stairways of Hogwarts, and found that the usual muggle stairways were much duller than she remembered. They climbed for a few floors and reached a small metal door. The Deacon unlocked them and they both stepped out onto the roof. It was night, and if not for the dim guiding lights, she could almost miss them. 3 pitch black helicopters, parked right there on the roof.

"Come with me Miss Granger, we are in this one."

She followed the Deacon and climbed in the helicopter. It was packed with 9 other men, dressed exactly the same as Deacon Radebe. The only visible difference between them was a small silver-white band over the Deacons left shoulder. The amount of equipment overwhelmed her. She could see that each man had various instruments strapped to his vest, belt, legs and holsters. She suspected some were weapons, she could clearly recognize pistols, but had very little idea on what others might be. Living for too long in the wizarding world left holes in her education. Wizards usually traveled with just a wand, that was the only instrument they really needed.

"Put this in your ear.", the Deacon gave her a small ear bud, "There, can you hear me. Signal with your hand. Good, now put this around your neck, it's a microphone, try speaking."

"What's this for?"

"Good, it works. This will enable us to be in constant communication during the mission. During the flight you might have to shout a bit, but in the woods the microphones will pick up the slightest whisper. And so far, no wizard has ever noticed the ear bud. Here, put this on.", he handed her a helmet, "It helps with the noise. And bumpy rides. Strap yourself in. Good. Ready to go.", the last sentence seemed to be aimed at no-one in particular.

"May God guide you men.", Father Paul's voice came over the ear bud, "Angels 1, 2 and 3, ascend."


	7. Chapter 7 - The Preparation

During the short flight nobody said a word. The men were all bowed with their heads down, each one holding a rosary and silently praying. She had some time to look at each man individually. They were all much younger than Father Paul, most were between twenty and thirty years old. After a while, she noticed some of them had really ugly scars stretching their necks and faces. Scars reminiscent of Bill. These men have met werewolves before. And the neck marks might be vampire marks. How did they go into battle so calm knowing they will be facing a magical animal that would scare even the most competent wizards?

As they approached the ambush spot, suddenly the sound of the helicopter became muffled. She looked at Radebe, who said:

"Silent mode, Miss Granger. The angels we use in England are pretty silent to begin with, it is a heretical country after all. For the last 20 miles, we slow down, and go into stealth mode. Even the civilians don't know we are here."

That made perfect sense. The casual remark that England was a "heretical country" reminded her once again how different the world was for these men. She was fighting for her home, her friends and her world. These men were foreigners in a foreign land, hiding from wizards and muggles alike, fighting a hopeless war. Her thoughts went back to the base, where Harry was drugged unconscious and Ron was recovering from a gunshot wound. The Inquisition was most definitely very dangerous. She would soon see just how dangerous.

The helicopters reached their destination and were hovering over a relatively secluded meadow deep in the middle of a misty forest. She didn't quite understand what was going on when the first two soldiers jumped out. She flinched but then noticed that there were ropes going down from other helicopters and soldiers descending down them. Her confusion was obvious, because Radebe started to explain:

"Landing would be too risky and too slow. I assume you have never done this before, so we are going to do it in pair. Just hold on tight and trust me."

He quickly disconnected the harness that was securing her to the helicopter and reattached it to himself. And then they jumped. She was used to flying, but the speed at which they descended amazed her. Especially considering that no magic was involved.

"All right Miss Granger, team 2 is setting up a tent. It should make the setting realistic. I suggest you sit in front of the tent when you trigger the taboo. We will make a small fire and put a chair next to it. It should make you sufficiently visible that they don't feel threatened. I would suggest you hit the floor the second they come. It is a reasonable reaction and will also make sure you are not caught in any crossfire."

"I can help. I can fight."

"Please Miss Granger. The wand shall be placed in your front right pocket. Do not reach for it. It will only make you a bigger target for the Snatchers. Also, we would prefer to take you back, without having to hunt you half across the world. If, and only if, all of us go down, then use it. And don't use it to fight, just run!"

With that, he set out to the tent that was quickly put up by the other men. She looked in wonder as he affixed a large triangular flag to the top of the tent. The fire in front of the tent was set up almost as fast as magic would. The whole scene could even be said to be pleasant. For Hermione, it brought back memories of camping with her parents. Before her muggle life was taken from her. It was so simple then, gathering wood for the fire. Her mum and her looking while her dad started the fire. All of them huddled around, looking at the night sky, talking, singing and laughing. She loved those trips. Absent-mindedly she sat down on the chair in front of the fire, looking straight at it. Absorbing the sensation of heat and the smell of burning wood. She was lost in her memories for a few minutes and jumped out of the chair when Radebe tapped her on the back.

"We are ready to go Miss Granger. Here.", he placed the wand in her pocket. "We shall hear you when you say the name. It would be perhaps best for you to count down from 3 before.". And with that, he was gone. Running towards the tree line. She looked up and could see the helicopters flying away. She wondered how far will they go. They were remarkably silent. She could see the small red blip from each one, what seemed to her to be at least 2-3 miles away. Well, no point in standing, might as well enjoy the moment. It could be her last.

"3."

She thought back to Ron. He just came back. She was still so angry at him for abandoning them. But the moment he came back, she already knew she would eventually forgive him. She should have done this before going on this suicide mission. Any moment now she will be surrounded by Snatchers, or worse.

"2."

And if she fails, Harry will be dead soon.

"1."

Breathe in. Breathe out.

**"**Voldemort**."**


	8. Chapter 8 - The Ambush

First there was silence. And then, a series of small pops. At least ten wands were pointing in her direction. She could see their faces. Some of them looked like wild animals, while others were neatly clothed members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with red ribbons on their arms. The Ministry in open cooperation with the Snatchers.

"Allrigh' girl! Don't give us any trouble and it'll all be ove..."

He never finished the sentence. After the first pop, the sharpshooters were already on target. She could hear in her earpiece the first metallic click that cleared the dart shooters. The eight humans collapsed down on the ground, while a soft voice whispered in her ear:

"Kill the werewolves. Fire at will."

The werewolves, still dazed from the initial dart hit, never had a chance. Hermione was in a few combats, but never like this. She knew that silver would not kill a werewolf, that was just a myth. But not even a werewolf can regrow both arms, a leg and a head at the same time. And the other one had a sizeable hole where his chest used to be. It was ruthless and efficient. She was still recovering from the shock of the scene when the Inquisition moved in. She could hear orders:

"Secure the prisoners. Clean up the werewolves. No trace left."

"Sir, two prisoners were overdosed. We are losing them."

"Medic! Try to stabilize them. Handheld oxygen and emergency procedure. Angel team, prepare IV drips and the antidote. Radio their weights to the teams!"

The team moved around, binding the prisoners. A small group was disassembling the tent. She could barely see two black body bags. As Radebe approached her, she remembered she still had her wand. And a silly silly plan to use it. How could she alone possibly attack after she saw this? They would all end up in three black bags, Merlin only knows where.

"Miss Granger! Are you okay?"

"Hm? Yes. Yes. I'm fine. It's just... The blood..."

"Come. It's all over now. Just stand up, we need to put the fire out and hide the remains.", he waved at two nearest soldiers, "Have you never seen a man die before?"

"I have. It's just that... The worst wizarding curse, the killing curse, tears the soul away from the flesh. Horrible, but much more peaceful than this. Of course there are spells that damage the body, the cutting curse and the exploding curse, but they are nothing compared to this."

"It's never easy to see this. The important thing to remember is that they were werewolves. They made their living causing harm to the innocent."

"Not all of them."

"What?"

"Not all werewolves are like that. The best teacher I ever had was a werewolf.", she probably should not be saying this, but she couldn't stop herself, "Every month he fought against his sickness. I learned more about defense from him in a year then I learned from all other defense teachers combined. And as a thank you, the wizarding world persecuted him."

This was the first thing she said that had caused an emotional response. She could see the brief flash of anger replaced by deep thought.

"Perhaps. Perhaps even such dark creatures can eventually redeem. The Almighty is all-loving. But many of us have lost families to werewolves, and I have seen many, and sent them all to meet Him. You should talk to Father Paul. He is learned, much more than I am. Come now, we need to go back home."

She followed him. There was no point in arguing, and the sooner they get home the better. There was something bothering her. Like she missed something really important in the past few minutes. Here thoughts were slid off track again when she heard the noise of a much bigger helicopter approaching. She was curious as to what was going on, but she didn't think Radebe would waste time answering her questions. As she was looking at it, the noise became much louder and a transport helicopter landed on the meadow. The soldiers began loading the prisoners and the body bags. The nagging feeling came back, and was telling her that whatever it was she missed, it had something to do with the prisoners. She was walking slowly towards the loading ramp. Nobody seemed to mind. When she reached the loading ramp, she could see the unconscious prisoners strapped on the seats, each surrounded by two guards. There were still a few empty seats and one of the men signaled to her that she should take the seat next to him. She picked up the helmet from the seat and sat down. As she was looking at the prisoners, she finally found what she was looking for.

"Why are these two wearing masks and have needles and the others don't?", she asked the guard next to her. He looked at her, and then simply put his finger on his lips. It was a noticeable improvement, last time they warned Ron to be silent he ended up with a gunshot wound. The question was still in her mind, as she was trying to think back. Her parents were dentists and they would give sedatives to people once in awhile. Usually they would only give anaesthetics, and they never mentioned any problems with those. But there was a memory, a story. She was too young to understand. Her mother was talking about a case where the patient was oversedated. It was really bad. Her mother said the poor man's heart stopped beating. Is this what was happening here? But these people were only knocked out for one or two minutes. If such a short exposure could almost kill them, than what would happen if someone was drugged for hours.

****"Oh. Harry."


	9. Chapter 9 - The Hidden Observers

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Piotr, you have seen the girl in action. You were certain giving back her wand was a bad idea. She didn't even reach for it.", the old priest had to teach his young second in command. "Give her some credit."

"Fine. Perhaps she is smarter than other wizards. But that only means she is more dangerous! You heard her talk about werewolves. Will you accept that as well? Should we now stop killing them on sight? Are you ready to ask that from the men?"

"No, our methods of dealing with dark creatures stay the same. They come from hundreds of years of experience after all. But the girl could be a valuable ally. We won't be this lucky every time. The Taboo nonsense just shows how confident the dark side has become. Why would you allow your enemy to pick the time and place of the confrontation unless you were certain only small pockets of resistance remain. We won't be able to pull this trick again, they will soon figure out we used the Taboo for an ambush. Although they will probably presume that the wizard resistance is to blame."

"Why are you so certain there will be a next time? This isn't our war. We could just observe from the sidelines and let the wizards kill each other."

"Eidoti oun kalon poiein kai mh poiounti amartia autw estin."

This made the younger priest stop for a bit. He knew very well where that quote came from, but couldn't quite convince himself he understood it properly. Surely the old man was not suggesting that they become belligerent in the internal wars of wizards. All witches and wizards are against God, some more violently than others of course, but all are enemies of The Order. Siding with the resistance was still siding with the Devil.

"I'm not a first year seminary student Paul. Quoting the words of our Lord does not automatically make you right. We will still protect the civilians, even the heretical English. No sin of omission on our part."

"If the current Ministry of Magic is allowed to grow, sooner or later the rest of Magical Europe will react. Just as it was before, the world will splinter in factions and the violence will spill over in our world as well. Millions have died the last time. We have a chance here to stop this."

"How do we know that? How do we know that these 3 can stop the current dark lord? And more importantly, how do we know they will not be worse? If they succeed we might just end up replacing one dark lord with three more powerful dark lords!"

"We don't. But I do have faith. The Lord has a plan. He led us to these three. What were the chances of us performing an exercise mission right next to them, in the precise moment they triggered the Taboo? We were meant to find them."

"That might be true. But finding them doesn't mean we were meant to help them."

"You are stubborn Piotr. For the time being, we will allow her to keep her wand. If she passes the test, we will consider our options, and the other two."

"If not?"

****"Then we do what we have always done with captured wizards. Quick and painless though, she was at least an honourable enemy."


	10. Chapter 10 - The Debriefing

The flight back to the base was uneventful, but for Hermione it was nail-biting. She now understood better the danger Harry was in. The drug they were using to knock them all out was obviously lethal. They survived the first time, but she couldn't tell how long were they out. And by her reckoning, Harry was now out for at least 4 hours, maybe more. She has to convince Father Paul that they are not a threat, and do it fast.

They landed in the base and the prisoners were quickly being unloaded from the helicopters. She was more interested in the 3 men approaching her.

"Congratulations Miss Granger. Come inside with us. We need to debrief you."

"No.", her hand was slipping downwards.

"I would not reach for that wand if I were you, Miss Granger."

"Just tell me the truth, is Harry going to die? Is he already dead? We almost killed two prisoners back there, and he has been drugged for hours now."

"Mister Potter is fine at the moment. The tranquilizer lethal dose depends on the weight of the subject. We knew Mister Potters exact weight, and are using different chemicals and keeping him under constant observation. He will be fine for the next few days, until we interview the prisoners and decide on our next step. Now come."

Much more relaxed Hermione followed them inside. As they were walking down the stairs, she realized she was starting to get oriented around the base. They were now walking down the corridor that leads to the mess hall. They stopped a few doors before reaching the hall and entered a small room. Father Paul sat behind his desk while the three of them were left standing.

"Please, sit down. Welcome to my office Miss Granger."

This was his office? Hermione expected comfort and perhaps even some grandeur. The headmasters office at Hogwarts was really the only thing she could compare to this room, and that was filled with pieces of Hogwarts history, the portraits and frankly very comfortable sofas. This was bare and cold. Even the chairs were there just to fill a specific purpose, a surface you can sit on, and absolutely nothing more. They were not even comfortable for goodness sake!

"They are normal chairs, no need to worry. Please, sit down. Now, shall we begin?"

Hermione nodded.

"After each mission we conduct debriefing sessions with all participants. Since you are slightly different, I believed it would be best to debrief you alone. Debriefing serves two purposes. First, we will simply talk and share information. It makes sure everyone is aware of everything that happened during the mission. Second, it helps us to asses what your next mission, if any, should be. Please feel free to talk openly during this, it's the only way to make informed decisions. Now, could you please describe in your own words how the mission went. Just tell us your story."

"Where should I start?"

"It is entirely up to you. This is completely your time. We will not interrupt you until you are finished, unless you ask us questions."

Hermione sighed, "I suppose for me it all started in the 'gear room'. A curious name. I changed clothes and was surprised when I had to point out my wand. To be honest, I still don't believe you really gave me my wand back. I was expecting it to be a joke. Later on when the young deacon gave it to me, I was almost sure it was going to be a fake.", she looked at the men intensely, trying to figure out if this was something they considered doing.

"As we reached the roof I was surprised to see the helicopters. I have never even seen one up close until now. I was expecting much more noise. I can see how you keep yourself secret. The black color against the black sky is almost invisible, and the sound was pretty muffled too. After a short flight we reached the plain and jumped out. As they prepared everything, I sat down and triggered the Taboo.", she abruptly stopped. She knew what she was about the say next, and she just couldn't. She was responsible for two deaths, just a few hours ago. And whatever they say, it was not combat. In combat the other person has a chance. The two werewolves they killed didn't even hear the bullets before it was too late.

"I triggered the Taboo and then people died. Because of me. And before you tell me they were only werewolves, I will tell you that werewolves are people too. For 29 days of the month in any case.", she was surprised that they didn't even try to argue. They were all listening her intently but their faces were blank. Two thoughts passed through her mind at the same time: either they were extremely serious about not interrupting her, or they were making sure that she learns no information from observing them.

"People died, and more will die. We almost lost two more to the tranquilizer. This made me think of Harry and getting back here as fast as possible. I didn't even think about the two dying prisoners until now. The last I saw they were still treated by the medical staff. What will happen to them?", before any of the men could answer she added, "What will happen to the rest of the prisoners while we are at it?"

The men were still looking at here, in a brief moment of silence. "I take it your story ends here and we can speak now?", asked Father Paul.

"Yes, please. I need to know."

"All right Miss Granger. The two men who had a reaction to the tranquilizer are in the secure area of the hospital. The reaction they had is not uncommon. It is impossible to guess the dosage of the tranquilizer beforehand, so we don't even try. Luckily the chemicals we use are relatively easy to counteract and the prisoners almost always recover after a while. If treated in time.", he took a short break, looking away from her for the first time. "As for your second question. The remaining prisoners are being placed in containment units as we speak. They will be woken up in a few minutes and then we will find out what they know about Mister Potter, you and us."

"How do you plan to find that out? I would be surprised if they even talked to you. These are Snatchers, to them you are less than human."

"Well Miss Granger, we are the Inquisition after all. We will do what we have always done. We will ask them."

Hermione blinked. This was so unexpected she had to take a moment to process the information. "You will, ask, them?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry but you are not really well-known for asking people. Historically the Inquisition is associated more with torture and death.", she hoped she didn't go too far with this, but the old priest just chuckled.

"Yes, some of that reputation is well deserved. But usually we do first ask. And we will do so this time as well. The information provided freely tends to be most accurate. Of course, we will also ask them a bit more enthusiastically if they do not feel like cooperating. Or we think they are lying."

Hermione wasn't really too shocked. The memory of what they did to Ron was still too fresh in her mind. So they really are the Inquisition. And they... plan... to torture... the prisoners. The prisoners for which she was responsible. Suddenly the two deaths didn't seem like the worst consequence of her actions. She couldn't live with herself if she allowed this. She would need to act fast. She slowly started to move her hand down towards her wand, all the while making sure to use her other hand to adjust her hair nervously. If she can make them think for a few seconds that she was just upset that they will torture the prisoners, she can touch her wand, apparate right behind the old priest, use him as a shield and stun the other two.

A small shallow breath, tensing up.

"No!"

She grabbed her wand and apparated right behind the old priest. Unfortunately for her, he spun around impossibly fast and instead of surprising him from the back, she apparated directly in front of him. Two well placed slaps on her wrist and hand simply batted her wand out of her hand. It was all over in less then a second. The two other men were not standing idly by either. Both had weapons aimed at her. There was only one thing left, defiance.

"You will have to kill me, I'm not going to allow you to torture and kill people I helped capture."

Surprisingly , the old priest started laughing. He waved down the other two guns, laughing all the time. Reaching down to pick up her wand, he was still smiling. Hermione could not believe what was happening as the old priest handed her wand back to her. Obviously, she could have just apparated out of there, but she was just too shocked.

"Miss Granger, please don't do that again. It was not even a bad effort, but you forget just how long we have fought wizards. Come with me, there is something you need to see. And put that wand back in your pocket. I appreciate that you were acting with extremely noble intentions this time, but next time I will not bother disarming you. You will not use it inside this base unless I personally ask you to do it."

"This was a test, wasn't it?", she asked. It was the only thing that made sense.


	11. Chapter 11 - The Depth

They were walking down the corridors again. Hermione couldn't help but wonder why was the Inquisition so keen to test her. This was the second time the old priest tried to test her reactions, and she was sure that they were observing her constantly. The whole thing was such a charade, like something out of bad spy movies. It would be much easier if they would just ask what they wanted to know, she would be happy to simply tell them. Only after a few steps did she realize exactly what she just thought. It caused her to miss a step. It was never about the tests, it was about manipulating her into this exact state, where she would willingly hand over information. Grudgingly she allowed herself to feel respect for the old man. Now that she knew what the game was, she had no option other than to play.

"I know what you are doing sir, it's not going to work."

The old man didn't seem to be too concerned about this.

"What is it that I am doing Miss Granger?"

She decided that the truth might be the most unexpected move here, "You are manipulating me by putting me through pointless tests so that I would feel the need to prove myself to you, and you are carefully controlling my fear of you so that I don't freak out and start lying.". She was sure that this would cause a reaction, and she wasn't disappointed. What she didn't expect is who would react. The young priest was obviously angry.

"I told you she was dangerous! She is too smart to be allowed to walk among us, nevermind the fact that she is also armed! We should stop this madness at once!"

The old priest was unfazed. He just kept walking in his pace, forcing the angry young priest to match his speed while he was ranting. Hermione also found it difficult to respond to Piotr's accusations and keep up pace at the same time. She was surprised at the level of disobedience the young priest was displaying. The Inquisition was supposed to be a fearsome military order, and in every movie she saw, the soldiers would follow orders blindly. Especially if they were religious zealots.

"Yes, you have said that already. Repeating it doesn't make it smarter.", the young priest was too shocked to respond, "But he is right Miss Granger, I did not expect you to be this fast. Very few recognize the true nature of tests, congratulations. Now tell me, what effects is this going to have?"

Hermione had to think fast. There were a few downsides to this. She lost the element of surprise, it could have been useful to be smarter than expected. The young priest was obviously considering her a bigger threat now, and she was not sure if he would act on it. On the upside, the old priest seemed happy.

"Now that I have exceeded your expectations, you will adjust them. You will now expect me to perform at this level all the time. On the other hand, with this question, you have already started to share more information with me than before.", she surmised.

"Excellent! A very perceptive response. Quite diplomatic too, since you avoided commenting on Piotr completely. Good Miss Granger, good."

For the first time, the corridors of the base stopped being featureless. There was a heavy metal gate right in front of them. As they passed through the gate, she was surprised to see another set of metal bars in front of them. They reached the prison block.

"Since you displayed such great concern for the wellbeing of 'your' prisoners, I decided you should see them. In fact, I believe you can help us gather some information from them. You are a famous leader of the rebellion, they will have certain prejudice about you. We can use these to our advantage.", explained the old priest.

"It also helps you hide the fact that you are muggles.", Hermione commented. "I think I understand a bit more how you operate. But I refuse to curse random people. Yes, they were responding to a Taboo, but some of them might be just lowly Ministry workers who had no choice in the matter."

"There is always choice. But don't worry, we don't need you to cast any magic. Just be yourself."

They entered a small dark room. One of the walls in the room was a window looking into the neighbouring room. The other room was very well-lit and she could clearly see two wizards tied to chairs in front of an empty desk. On the other side of the desk were two empty chairs. She was surprised to see the lack of guards in the room. Remembering back to her own experience, she realized that the Inquisition probably had something else besides the cameras. Probably something quite lethal if they were willing to leave adult ministry wizards alone in the room.

"Tell me Father Paul, how fast would they get shot if they tried something?"

Piotr groaned in obvious displeasure with her question. "I'm not sure why Paul doesn't just get rid of you once and for all, but I'm sure that you didn't really expect an answer to that question. We would never give out information on the base defense systems to a witch. Even to, or perhaps should I say especially to, a witch like you."

"Now, now Piotr.", the old priest admonished, "Even though you didn't answer her question, you did just confirm the existence of the automated defense systems. I'm sure that was the young lady's intention all along.". Turning to Hermione he said, "On the other hand, he is right Miss Granger. I acknowledge you as a much smarter than most other witches and wizards, but some information is on a need to know basis."

"And I don't need to know.", Hermione remembered a quote from an old movie.

"Exactly."

She turned her attention back to the prisoners. They didn't look feral, as she would have expected Snatchers to look. After all, they were led by Greyback, the out of control werewolf. As she was studying them, she noticed something that was bothering here. None of the men was looking in their direction. She could clearly see them right through the window. If she was in there, she would be looking back at her capturers.

"Are they somehow bound to look straight forward? How come they are not looking at us?"

"Ah, wizards and their lack of proper education. We are standing in an extremely dark room while their room is bright. Even with normal glass they would have trouble seeing us, and this is a special one-way glass. We can observe them, but they cannot see us. Tell me Miss Granger, what do you see?"

She had to admit to herself that she didn't really see anything. It was in the end just two wizards tied to chairs in a room. She didn't know them, she didn't know what the dark red armbands represented, what the standard Snatcher group hierarchy was. "I see two wizards tied to chairs.", was the only thing she could say, so she did.

"Yes, I wouldn't really expect you to be proficient in interrogation techniques. You see Miss Granger, you were worried that we are going to torture the prisoners physically. What you really should have been worried is that we are going to break their minds. That is after all where the information we need is. And breaking into somebodies mind takes an understanding of that mind. We know that some wizards can use spells to read minds directly. We don't have that luxury. But we do know how to read people. You will be surprised at how much you can learn just by looking at someone. The way they move their body, the involuntary movement of their eyes, direction of their attention, especially if there are others nearby. All these things can tell you exactly what you need to know. And our goal here is quite simple: get them into a state where they will volunteer information.", Hermione listened intently nodding her head, "And in the end, there is only one way to do that. We need to give them what they want in exchange. So we either need to figure out what they want now, or make them change it. Now tell me Miss Granger, what is the relationship between the two prisoners?"

"How could I know? I don't even know them!", Hermione was confused. "They are obviously coworkers, although I don't think Snatchers have anything more hierarchical than loose associations. I mean, they don't even look at each other. They are probably not even friends."

"Quite the opposite actually. If they were enemies, they wouldn't take their eyes off each other. If they were just friends or coworkers, they would be scanning the room, occasionally exchanging glances to transfer information but more importantly try to judge each other. You see enemies, friends and coworkers would all be worried about one simple question: is the other one going to betray me?". Hermione was amazed at how much sense this made. "There is only one reason why they would never look at each other: they both honestly believe that there is no way the other one would betray them. They are either best of friends or even more.".

"So what you are saying is, we know that they are incredibly close. But how does that help us? How does it help us to keep them together? Aren't they more likely to resist us when together?"

"Perhaps, but they are far more likely to try and save each other. And that is exactly what we are going to offer to them. And you will see them volunteering themselves, because nobody wants to live with the knowledge that his best friend died just to save his life.". Hermione could understand that. After all, she risked her life just hours ago for Harry and Ron.

"So now you know the plan. You and me are going in Miss Granger, and because it is quite fortunate for us that we have you here, you will be leading the interrogation.", Hermione was shocked by this, "I'm sure that they will recognize you as one of the leaders of the rebellion. This will help us greatly in maintaining our secrecy. And remember, before we go in, we need to know where they take their prisoners, who is guarding them, and do they know what happened to the team we took out when we captured you.", and with that, he pushed back her in the corridor and opened the door of the interrogation chamber for her.

She had only a few seconds to pull herself together. With a determined look, one she was hopeful it was a look worthy of a Rebel Leader, she walked into the chamber.


	12. Chapter 12 - The Interrogation

Hermione walked into the interrogation chamber after father Paul. Paul was a few steps ahead and sat down in silence. He was looking intently at the two wizards, his hands by his side, relaxed and ready. He quite intently positioned her chair slightly farther away from the table than his, at the same time making it as obvious as possible that he was waiting for her to start the questioning. She was sure that from the perspective of the two wizards, he looked more like a bodyguard than the leader. This was exactly what he wanted. Even if the two wizards survived and were somehow released with their memories, all they would remember is that Hermione Granger, one of the most wanted mudblood witches, a leader of the light side and a known associate of Harry was commanding what was obviously an army. If they recognized the priests outfit, they might raise a few questions about why she was associating with muggles, but they would still presume she somehow recruited them. Not, as she was beginning to understand more and more, them recruiting her. She was never good at acting, but then again, she didn't need to act a lot here. Trying to look friendly, she started.

"My name, is Hermione Granger.", there, no hiding. "I can see you already knew that. In the dark, it was perhaps difficult to recognize me, but I'm sure you have seen the Wanted for Questioning posters with my name. Tell me, out of curiosity, how do I rank?", this caused some confusion between the two wizards. They obviously had no clue what she was asking. "Well, we know that Harry is called Undesirable #1. I hope I am at least in the top 5?"

The two wizards were now even more confused. This was not how interrogations were supposed to look like. They had captured many wizards and witches wanted for questioning, so they had a pretty good idea how Questioning looks like. Usually after the Ministry questioned you, you were dead. If you were important enough for the Death Eaters to question you personally, you would wish you were dead. And here they were, questioned by one of the most powerful figures for the other side, and she didn't even ask them anything important. In it's own way, this was more scary than anything they could have imagined.

"I don't think there is a ranked list. Except for Potter.", One of them finally gathered the courage to answer her.

"Oh my. Are you sure? Tell me, what do you do with people once you capture them? Surely you have different orders for me than for poor old Stan.", she was glad she remembered how the Death Eaters imperiused old Stan Shunpike.

"You are a Known Associate of Harry Potter. If we find you, we are under orders to take you to the Ministry immediately."

"That doesn't sound so special, surely you take all your prisoners to the Ministry."

"Well, sometimes there is no need to hurry. A bit of gold can slow us down, perhaps make us look the other way. It's not like anybody would care if Cattermole's wife is captured or not."

"Really? So, all prisoners are kept at the Ministry? Even the very important ones?"

"As far as I know, yes."

"What about you?", she turned to the other prisoners, "What do you know? And don't tell me the same lie your friend here is trying to peddle. I have been to the Ministry. I have seen the holding cells, you might have heard something about that particular breakout.", their eyes widened in horror. The incident was of course known to everyone, but Yaxley and Runcorn made it very publicly known what would happen to anyone stupid enough to mention it. It was very embarrassing for the Ministry to have a massive breakout. Learning that Granger, and probably Potter personally, were involved explained so much.

"That really is what they ordered us! We take everyone to the Ministry!", she looked at him intently, waving him to continue, "But... You hear things. A few weeks ago, I worked with some werewolves. They were joking that Malfoy must only go for blondes because one of the prisoners was transferred to Malfoy Manor. She was a young blonde girl. I don't think she was a normal prisoner either, the way they were talking about her capture seemed like a special mission was dispatched to capture her personally."

"Luna.", she was turning visibly angry, "Luna Lovegood is in Malfoy Manor? Guarded by werewolves? She is just a KID. She didn't even finish Hogwarts yet!", the air around her became magically charged. She noticed the buildup, and so did everyone else in the room. She closed her eyes and took a few deep, calming breaths.

"So, tell me, did they joke about anything else? Did you joke with them? Was it FUN for you?"

"No, I... I..."

"How many people did you take do their deaths? How many children?"

"I never killed anyone! I swear!"

"HOW MANY?"

"I don't know! Ten, twenty! I swear, no more. I was just following orders! They would declare me a blood traitor if I didn't do it! And then I would end up dead, just like them!"

She was angry, angrier than she had ever been in her life. These cowards! While others were out there risking their lives to defend their muggle born and mudblood friends, these bastards captured innocent children and took them to werewolves. And they didn't even have the decency to do that properly, instead betraying their new masters for gold. Gold they took from desperate people running for their life. The whole thing sickened her. She wanted to cause them pain, just as a small payback for the twenty lives they took. Paul's words crossed her mind at that point. She was not sure if this would work, but she didn't feel like caring too much at the moment.

"Take the other one away! If he causes problems, just do what you do best!", she turned to Paul and gestured, "And leave me ALONE with this one. Post a few guards at the door, nobody comes in until I am done. And alert the medics, have them wait in front as well!". If the old man was surprised by her giving him orders, he hid it exceptionally well. With a courteous nod of the head, he accepted her order and dragged the other prisoner out from the room.

"Now, you will tell me EVERYTHING! You will tell me everything you know about Malfoy Manor. Who guards it, who is imprisoned there, how do you identify yourself, who is on the list of people wanted for questioning, everything. And maybe, maybe, once you are done, you get to walk out of this room alive. And just to make sure you understand this, you can try and lie your way out of this. But any hope you have of going back to the Death Eaters better end right now, because no matter what you tell me, no matter if you lie or tell the truth, I will tell everyone you talked. I will make sure every Death Eater, every Snatcher, knows you turned. I'll even go a bit further, and lie a bit myself. So if you were afraid they would turn against you if you disobeyed their orders, think for a moment what they will do to you once they know you spied on them. Oh yes, I'll slip up, I'll say that you were spying for us from day one.", she worked herself up again, she had to take another calming breath. "Or you can tell me the truth, and do so fast. And maybe, just maybe, I'll make sure we keep you imprisoned here for a long time."

By the time she was finished, the colour was completely drained from his face. He was sure that he wouldn't last more than a week running away from the Snatchers. And he could only hope that the Death Eaters didn't think that spies were important enough to track personally. And that was a very thin hope indeed.

"Ok! Ok! I'll tell you everything I know! Please, don't throw me to the Death Eaters!"


	13. Chapter 13 - The Short Rest

As she exited the room, she was not surprised to find father Paul waiting for her. He had two guards next to him. As soon as she left the room, they entered and escorted the prisoner away. She had to find a nice quiet place to process what just happened. Hermione leaned on the wall and just looked through the window. For once, the usually disorienting blandness of the generic line of trees had a calming effect. She didn't really care where she was, she just wanted to get lost in her thoughts. Paul said nothing. He walked up to her and looked out the window as well.

They stood in silence for at least five minutes before she spoke, "I suppose you heard everything?".

"Yes. They would have taken you to Malfoy Manor if we had not intervened. They are holding other high-profile prisoners there, and it is a base of sorts for them. At least for the darkest among them that cannot be seen publicly at the Ministry. It is a heavily protected estate, with wards that would make an attack almost impossible."

"Almost?"

"Well, we have some resources. Unfortunately, if we use those, there are two possible results. Either the wards hold and we expose our presence, or there will be no building left to capture. I would be surprised if even the dungeons survived as anything more than rubble."

Hermione didn't have much knowledge on muggle militaries. Once again she had to curse her departure from the muggle world at the age of eleven. But she couldn't get sidetracked on this. There was another question burning her mind.

"What happens now? What happens to them?". In her mind, she also added "to us?" at the end of that sentence. She decided to wait with that question for a moment.

Paul could understand where that question was coming from. She was so protective of the prisoners before, feeling guilty for their capture. Now she was faced with their evil. Not the obvious, diabolical evil of the dark lord. This was a much worse evil, the type of evil that only men that followed orders do. It was tearing her in half. She was a protector of light, adamant to protect those that she felt responsible for. On the other hand, she wanted to cause them pain for the dozen lives they had on their hands. He had seen this before, and considered it a good sign, only people with strong minds could feel this, the rest would just pick one of the options, usually the one their leaders told them to.

"Miss Granger, moral responsibility is a very difficult thing. In their minds, they have done nothing wrong. They were merely following orders, and not really by choice. You can face them with their deeds, but in their core they believe they had no choice other than give up others to save themselves."

"But their victims were real. They deserve justice."

"Yes, they do. But we have limited options here. We can kill them.", the look of horror on her face told him that wasn't really an option, "We can release them back where we collected them or we could ship them off to South America."

"South America?", Hermione did not expect that.

"There are countries there with strong catholic presence. We have a few long-term sites there. We don't use them that much for prisoners though, usually we use it for refugees. The witches and wizards who decide to come back to us spend time there in prayer and meditation."

"What would happen to the prisoners there? Would you keep them locked forever?"

"We don't have the resources to keep anyone locked. When they reach the monastery, they are stripped of all their possessions, including their wands, and given simple clothing. They are then released. Most choose to stay within the monastery, tending the garden or doing some other form of manual labor. In time, some even convert to Christianity."

"And those that don't choose to stay?"

"We find their bodies sometimes. The jungle road is quite deadly, especially for wizards that have never set foot outside the magical world."

She knew that this was no different from just killing them. Perhaps it was even worse. But it was something she could rationalize. She would give them a choice. Not an easy one, but still, more than what they gave to their victims.

"I guess it is a good thing that they don't know what happened to the team they sent to capture us. Harry won't be happy about their story though. He actually hates all this boy-who-lived nonsense. The fact that they now believe him to be some superpowered wizard that can just wish-kill a dozen wizards at once will only make it worse. And it's going to shock our friends too. Harry's signature spell is Expelliarmus, a disarming spell. That he would kill, and in such a bloody way, is going to raise questions.". She felt she had to expand on that, "Remember, the Ministry propaganda has painted him as a possible dark lord for months now. Implicating him in the murder of Dumbledore just became much easier.". She waited a bit before asking the most important question, "Does this mean we can wake him up now?"

The old priest was deep in thought. He didn't really believe this was enough evidence. If the current dark lord had a connection to his arch nemesis, it's possible he wouldn't advertise that to random foot soldiers. On the other hand, keeping the boy unconscious would only work for a limited amount of time, if at all. For all he knew, the connection would still work in their dreams. The only way to really make sure is to kill him. And there was no way he could justify killing defenseless innocent teenagers. Breaking one of the commandments was never done lightly, never. He wondered if Piotr would agree with that, or would he be able to pull the trigger. And he didn't forget Miss Granger. She was a formidable force. One that would turn against them in a few seconds from now if he said no. Of course, he was sure he could kill her without much trouble, but killing her would be an incredible waste.

"Yes. We can wake him up. We will even consider returning the wands back. But if, and only if, they vow to follow your orders, and you promise to follow mine.".

Hermione was shocked and relieved at the same time. She didn't know how long this tense alliance would last. But for now, she could rest for a few minutes. After she convinces Harry and Ron, of course. She was sure convincing Harry could be done, but Ron was a completely different story. He didn't have the muggle experience Harry had, and he had a personal reason to hate the Inquisition, embedded neatly in his shoulder.

"Whatever happens next, if you kill us or not, can you promise me something?", Hermione now turned to face the old man, "Destroy Malfoy Manor, rescue Luna Lovegood, and don't take prisoners."


	14. Chapter 14 - The Waking Up

Hermione was holding Harry's hand as he lay on the bed. The drip that was keeping him in an induced coma was removed some time ago and the doctors told her he should be waking up soon. He almost looked rested, certainly better than in the past few months. She tried to come up with a good way of explaining their new situation to Harry, but had come up blank. The problem is that Hermione couldn't quite explain their new situation to herself. She wasn't quite sure if she was slowly being recruited to the Inquisition or did they just form a temporary alliance. Those were the two better options. It was also highly probable that the Inquisition was just using her for their own goals. But why did the old man say that they had to vow and she only had to promise.

The small movement in her hand focused her attention elsewhere. Harry slowly started to wake up, squeezing her arm weekly. She leaned forward, stroking his hair.

"It's ok Harry. You're safe. Just keep calm and relax."

"'mione? Where are we? Am I dead?"

If the situation had been less serious, she would have laughed at that question. It was a question straight out of a bad joke. It was much less funny when the real answer was "not yet", though.

"Relax Harry, we are still in the Inquisition base.", knowing what his next question is going to be she continued, "I managed to convince them to wake you up.". She was not really proud about the next part of the story, but she had to get it out as soon as possible.

"Harry, I helped them set up a trap for the Snatchers.", she could feel him struggling to get up so she moved her hand from his hair and gently pushed his chest back down on the bed. "Relax Harry. As you can see I am here. But things did change.". She went on and described the sequence of events that led to the capture of the prisoners.

"They wanted me to interrogate them Harry.", she had to stop here. His hand reaching up to her hand and gently holding her gave her the strength to continue. "Harry, I was so sure. I was ready to fight to protect their lives. I felt so responsible for their capture and was sure I will be responsible for their deaths. I was already responsible for two dead werewolves, I just couldn't take more. But then I talked to them.", she was making a real effort not to burst into tears. "Harry, this is so real. We have been facing cartoonish evil creatures for years now, but this is something completely different. These are just small people who made the wrong choice. They are not death eaters and dementors. But in a way, they are worse. The one I interrogated is personally responsible for at least ten arrests.". She couldn't hold it any more, tears started flowing as she spoke the next words, "I was ready to kill him right there and then Harry. In the end I didn't, but I think I might have sentenced them all to a fate worse than death. I allowed the Inquisition to ship them to a remote monastery in South America. Their wands will be destroyed, and the only escape is a deadly path through the jungle. I sentenced them to a life of hard manual labour. Never to use magic again, until the day they die. And the Inquisition doesn't take their magic away like the Ministry would, so they will still feel it calling them. Every, single, day.". Sobbing was making it hard for her to speak. "Harry, I feel like I am turning so dark."

Harry was listening to the story with disbelief. The tears flowing down Hermione's face were real though, and he had to do something for her. She was still holding her hand on his chest, so he couldn't get up and hold her, but nothing prevented him from pulling on her hand until she collapsed in his arms. He was hugging her as hard as he could, each sob painfully shaking his chest.

"Hermione, it's not your fault. You are not a bad person for doing what you did. You may have sentenced them to life in prison, but they did much worse. And they would have continued doing so. You gave them much more choice than they gave their victims.". His words reduced the strength of her convulsions. "You are not turning dark. The difference between you and darkness is that darkness targets the innocent."

The last sentence stopped her sobs. She was still in his arms, and he wasn't sure what to do next. Part of him was enjoying the physical sensation. Part of him felt bad about enjoying. But mostly, he wanted to know what happens next. The story she told him was scary but it didn't really explain why they trusted her with a wand or why they agreed to wake him up.

"Hermione, why do they trust me now?"

"They don't." She pushed herself back up in her chair. "If you wish to stay awake, and alive, you will have to vow to follow my orders. And I think they mean the unbreakable vow."

The ensuing silence lasted for minutes before Harry finally spoke: "I don't think I can do that Hermione. I don't mind following your orders, but this is insane. I'm already fighting for control of my life with a prophecy. How can I give my free will away?"

"I understand that Harry. I would never ask you to do this. I don't want that kind of power over anyone. But they will kill you otherwise Harry. And if you don't do this, there is no way I'll be able to convince Ron to do it."

Harry was struggling internally. He would rather choose death than lose his free will. But he would be risking other people's lives as well. And he wasn't directly giving up free will. He was just vowing to follow Hermione, something he would do anyway.

"Hermione. I trusted you with my life. You have stood by my side for seven long years. You were the only person in my life that never abandoned me.", he was looking straight into her eyes, "I will vow to follow your orders."

Hermione expected to be relieved, but she wasn't. It was just an additional burden placed on her shoulders. It was a horrible idea for her, being responsible for other people's lives. How could anyone want such power over other people?

"Hermione?", a thought had struck Harry. "Do you think they would accept some slight changes?". He now had her attention back. "I was thinking, what if I vow to follow your orders, but only until Vold..."

"HARRY! NO!", Hermione panicked.

"Oh. Right. Taboo.". He realized that talking and thinking too much after being knocked out took a lot of effort. "But what do you think of the idea? We could vow to follow your orders until, you-know-who, is destroyed."

"I don't know Harry. One thing I did learn about Inquisition is that they are not as unified as you might think. Father Paul might accept your idea, but Piotr will probably try to use it against us."

"Oh. That's another thing. What if somebody takes you hostage and uses you to control us. What if you order me to curse you? I would never be able to harm you! We need to try to put that in the vow as well."

"Oh Harry. Thank you. But they will never agree to that. It is essentially what the Inquisition is doing to me, using me as a hostage to keep you both in line. But thank you for that."

"You don't have to thank me Hermione.". He was reasonably sure that if it came to that, and he had to choose between harming Hermione and death, he would rather die breaking the vow. And not just Hermione, Harry would rather die than harm any of his friends. "Hermione, what happened to Ron? Is he okay?"

"The last time I saw him he was recovering from his wound. He should be fine by now. Would you like to go and see him?"

"Do you think they will let us go?"

"I'm sure they will.". Hermione sighed. "We need another wizard to make the vow."


	15. Chapter 15 - The Vows

Hermione always expected Ron to explode. It was just not in his person to even think about this idea before reacting. He was taught all his life that you do not take unbreakable vows, placing them in the same category of spells as the unforgivables. She hated when Ron acted without thinking, which is why she was really surprised by his response.

"I'll do it."

Hermione had to sit down. Harry and her had discussed the best way to break the news to Ron in the hallway and decided that it's best to just tell him as soon as they enter his room. She already had a list of reasons that she would use. Harry however realized that asking Ron to vow to follow Hermione was probably going to elate his friend. Ever since that trip to the Lovegood house, he knew that Ron was in love with Hermione, and not only that, he also knew that Ron knew that Ron was in love with Hermione. To give Hermione some time to catch up with this and to prevent the discussion from going in this direction, he decided to point out the obvious problem.

"Well, that settles that.", said Harry, "I have to wonder though, how exactly do they plan to do this? They have to give us our wands before we make the oath because we need to cast the vow. You have your wand Hermione, but since you are in both vows you cannot cast the spell. What's to stop the person casting the vow from using the wand to escape?"

"Harry, it's obvious." Surprisingly, the answer came from Ron. "They have the other two as hostages."

"He's right", thought Harry. "So, when do we do this? Do we need to go out and call the guards?"

"I think they already know Harry.", said Hermione. "They are keeping us under surveillance all the time.". As soon as she said that, the door opened and Paul, Piotr, Radebe and ten other guards walked in the room. Radebe was carrying the box Hermione recognized as the wand box.

"Good Miss Granger, good. You continue to perform at your level.", Paul gestured to Radebe who brought the box in front of Harry. "Mister Potter, if you would be so kind to point out your wand."

Harry didn't really have a wand in that box so he just pointed out the blackthorn wand Ron gave him. The wand was less powerful, but he wasn't really worried. Worst case, the vow he casts will not be as unbreakable as the name would suggest. Radebe then offered the box to Ron who pointed out his willow wand.

"Good. Gentleman, who would like to be the first to make the vow?"

"I'll do it.", said Harry. "I don't even know how to cast the spell. I'll let Ron cast first so I can pick it up."

"Wait!", Hermione was slowly recovering from her shock. "We need to sort out the details. We need to agree on the wording of the vow.". She looked at Paul, making a conscious effort not to look at Piotr at any point. "Would something like this be acceptable to you: Will you, Harry, obey my every order until Tom Marvolo Riddle, the current dark lord, is defeated?"

Paul immediately picked up on the reason behind this, but the Inquisition was here during the reign of the previous dark lord and will be here when the next one comes around. Having control of Potter would be a great asset. Especially if Potter becomes the next dark lord. On the other hand, his work on Miss Granger might be damaged if he pushes this.

"Yes, that is acceptable.", Paul held out his hand to silence Piotr's objections. "But you will say: fully and finally defeated and killed. We are aware of the several times Harry here has defeated him already. Somehow it doesn't seem to stick." He nodded to Radebe who took the two wands out from the box. "But first, let's start with you Miss Granger.". The tension in the room increased visibly. "Since these two gentlemen will be bound to you, I'm going to need you to promise to follow my orders. You must also promise to keep our secrets safe."

Once more in a very short time span Hermione was shocked. She had expected much more. He could have easily forced her to take an unbreakable vow as well. Even as a promise, it was surprisingly reasonable. He didn't even ask her to follow the Inquisition, but rather him personally. There were also no conditions placed on how she used her power over Harry and Ron. After her experience before the interrogation, it was obvious to Hermione now that Paul was manipulating her. Playing with her mind and trying to trick her into something. But try as she might, she couldn't figure out what that something was. If he was trying to win her over to his side, he could have just done that forcefully.

"I promise.", said Hermione.

"Excellent! Let's continue on then. Miss Granger, you are more qualified than us. If you would be so kind."

Hermione stood up and walked next to Harry. "Ron will need his wand.". The young deacon handed the wand over to the redhead. "Harry, kneel with me and take my hand. Ron, put your wand so that the tip is touching our hands and focus on the spell.". As Ron's wand approached their hands, a slight fiery glow emanated from it.

"Will you, Harry, obey my every order until Tom Marvolo Riddle, the current dark lord, is fully and finally defeated and killed?"

"Yes.". A thin stream of fire burst out from the top of Ron's wand weaving around their hands. Harry was now bound to Hermione. The stream of fire disappeared into their hands and slowly Harry let go of her. He didn't feel like anything was different. He stood up and Ron quickly replaced him next to Hermione. Very carefully, mindful of his injury, Hermione took Ron's hand. "There is no specific incantation Harry. The spell works by binding bits of our magic together. All you have to do is focus on being the bridge between Ron's and my magic.". Harry placed the tip of his wand next to their hands and focused. Quickly the top of his wand started to glow.

"Will you, Ron, obey my every order until Tom Marvolo Riddle, the current dark lord, is fully and finally defeated and killed?"

"Yes.". A thin stream of fire burst out from the top of Harry's wand weaving around their hands. As it did before, the stream disappeared into their hands. Unlike Harry, Ron wasn't going to let Hermione's hand unless he had to. Ron quickly stood up and used their joined hands to offer Hermione support while she got up.

"Now that this is done, what happens next?", asked Harry.

"Now, ", said Hermione, "we destroy Malfoy Manor."


End file.
